8th Annual Bayou City Duck Race

The 8th Annual Bayou City Duck Race returns to Bayou Park at East River on Saturday, November 7, from 10 AM to 12 PM. It's the eighth time the American Festival for the Arts has run this one, and the format is as simple as it sounds: around 6,000 rubber ducks are launched into Buffalo Bayou and left to float downstream. The first ten to cross the finish line win a prize, and a handful of Lucky Ducks are picked at random from the rest of the fleet.

If you want a stake in the race, you can adopt a duck for $5. Once you've got one in the water, you can watch from the banks as the fleet makes its way down the bayou. The morning is set up as a free, family-friendly event, with music, entertainment and food along the banks, so it works as a standalone outing even if you don't enter a duck.

There's a point to the whole thing beyond the spectacle. The race supports the AFA Play It Forward Fund, which helps thousands of young musicians across the Greater Houston area each year. So that $5 for a duck goes toward keeping kids in the city playing music.

It's a short window on a Saturday morning—10 AM to 12 PM—at Bayou Park at East River, 2920 Riverby Rd, Houston, TX 77020. It's free to attend, and ducks are $5 each.